I say tortilla chip, you say…?

Well, if you’re British, apparently you say nacho. A Brit taught me this whilst we were having lunch at a Mexican restaurant* last week. Bonus – the vocabulary lesson came in handy the very next day when it appeared as an answer in the Guardian crossword.

by Flickr user pointnshoot (Creative Commons license)

Anyhoo, maybe the misuse of the word nacho explains why you can’t get good nachos here. My sister holds a grudge against one of my local pubs because she was so disappointed by the “nachos” they serve. There’s usually a lack of extra toppings, they struggle with getting the cheese properly melted (I mean, come on…how hard is that to achieve?), and the chips often look as if someone stomped all over the bag then emptied the crumbs over the plate.

You also can’t get decent tortilla chips, so far as I know. The closest approximation is plain Doritos, and whilst I have a deep love for Nacho Chees(ier? iest?) and Cool Ranch, plain ones masquerading as tortilla chips doesn’t fly.

– Anna

* Wahaca in Covent Garden. Yup, they bastardise the spelling so people will know how to pronounce it. But I will forgive the intentional misspelling because the food is so good, and very, very cheap. We had dinner the other night for 20 squids a head, and that included a couple of drinks and dessert (churros with chocolate…yum, yum, YUM). But beware, they don’t take reservations, so busy nights are hectic and you could easily wait over an hour for a table.